We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. Loved ones, perhaps before you have been in the past to a Good Friday service such as this, maybe this is the first time you've been to a service of lessons and carols. And the purpose of this is to do what the church has been doing for hundreds of years. To be reminded of the final hours of the passion of Christ. As we ponder the salvation that is ours in Him. As we ponder His suffering and crucifixion. His death and burial. And as we ponder this, our hearts are filled with a sense of the seriousness of this day. And yet we do call this day Good Friday. It is good because on this day, as the curse of God was poured out upon Christ, it was not the end. Good Friday led to the resurrection and the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. And so the Scriptures that we are reading, the hymns that we have sung, are driving us to, in fact, what this day was all about. And in Ephesians 1, verse 7, we will focus on this one verse. We see four words here that describe for us what this day was about. The words redemption and blood, forgiveness and grace. And so I want tonight to explain and examine what these words mean to unpack the essence of the weightiness of each one of them. And so we look beginning at the price of our redemption, the first point. And as we look at the price of our redemption, we need to understand what this word redemption is teaching us. The word redemption comes to us not only in the New Testament, but its grounding comes way back in the Old Testament. It is a word that means deliverance by the payment of a price. And in the first century world in which Paul lived, the people around him knew exactly what this was like. People lived in slavery in those days. In fact, in some places, the majority of the citizens were slaves. And slaves lived their life knowing that they wanted the opportunity to have their freedom purchased for them. It would be a price that would be paid by someone to grant their freedom. That's what the idea of redemption is getting at. In the Old Testament, this word has its grounding in the days of the Exodus. in the days when God brought His people through the Red Sea, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. In the Old Testament as well, in the book of Ruth, the picture of redemption is seen as Ruth herself was bought by a kinsman-redeemer, a man named Boaz, who came and he was the one who purchased the property, and also her, and he did so, and in the process was a picture of the ultimate redeemer. The idea of redemption gets to the fact that we are enslaved to sin. Sin is not just something that we think or do. Sin is the condition of our hearts. And because of our condition of sin and slavery to it, we need someone to redeem us out of it. And the only way to be redeemed is by blood. And Ephesians says, in him we have redemption through his blood. So this is referring not only to the redemption that Christ accomplished, but in Him, in Christ, the blood that was shed. And once again, this word blood drives us back into the pages of the Old Testament. Because we say, of course, we were saved by Jesus' death. That's true. But we also need to understand the necessity of blood being shed for that salvation. And as we do, we remember the Old Testament sacrificial system. Our kids who are raised in the scriptures and raised in the teachings of the Heidelberg Catechism know that in the Old Testament, there were bulls and goats that would be sacrificed to God and that these bulls and these goats would have their blood spilt and the high priest would lay his hands on the heads of these animals. They were killed and it was a symbol of the guilt being transferred from the people to the animal. On that most holy day in the Old Testament, the Day of Atonement, this blood from these animals was then sprinkled on top of the mercy seat, which was on top of the Ark of the Covenant. And in that picture, God said, I require blood shed to forgive my sinful people. And as we read Ephesians 1, verse 7, we know the blood of Christ stretches all the way back to cover the saints of the Old Testament because bulls and goats did not take away sin. They were shadows. They were pictures. It was, as Ephesians 1, verse 9 says, a mystery. The mystery of His will, verse 9. And the mystery is this, the entire Old Testament sacrificial system was like scaffolding on a building. When you're building a structure, say a downtown office complex, you have scaffolding for a temporary period of time as the building is taking shape. But once the building is complete, the scaffolding is no longer needed. We don't go and climb up the scaffolding once the building is painted and ready to use. And so when Christ came, the scaffolding had fulfilled its purpose. The mystery behind it is revealed. He has come to fulfill those shadows of the Old Testament. And he has done so by entering the most holy place, not through the blood of bulls and goats do we enter this, but by his blood, we now enter it. And so Paul says, as an Old Testament picture, the animal itself had its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. And now the fulfillment has come. Christ took His own blood and it has been sprinkled in the heavenly sanctuary to forgive us. Because the entire Old Testament system was a picture of the heavenly reality. It was a copy of what the real thing was. And Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain, did what all of those pictures were pointing to have Him do. Peter says that He ransomed us. not with these perishable things, not with earthly things, but with His precious blood, that of a lamb without blemish or spot." He was sinless, loved ones. He didn't come to shed His blood for His own sin. He came to shed His blood for your sin and my sin, the sins of all of His people in the Old Testament, all of His people who would ever live. And every drop of that blood was shed to accomplish that salvation. He is our Redeemer. Our Redeemer by His blood being shed. Our Redeemer placarded before our eyes this day. One Old Testament writer said that the titles of Jesus, which are all precious, perhaps the most precious of them all is the idea of Christ as Redeemer. Because when we understand He is our Redeemer, our hearts are filled with great joy as we see the mighty price that He pays. the price he paid for your redemption. Kids, the price he paid for your sins. This is a serious and yet joyful moment to consider on this Good Friday. So Christ's blood is the price of our redemption. Secondly, what is the result of our redemption? The result of our redemption is forgiveness. If you look again in Ephesians 1, verse 7, it says, In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now, this word redemption that we just talked about briefly gets at the idea of forgiveness, yes, but it gets at even more than that, because forgiveness is one aspect of redemption. And yet redemption itself is finally and fully glorification. Finally, and fully, redemption is that day when our bodies will be glorified and fully redeemed. When we won't be struggling with ongoing sin and the weight of misery and sickness and pain. And so, forgiveness of sins is one aspect of the redemption that Jesus accomplished. And yet, it's so much greater, isn't it, than even just that. It's the redemption of the new heavens and new earth. It's the redemption for which all of creation is longing. And yet Paul says here, in him we have the forgiveness of sins. And that word in verse 7 for sins is a word to talk about trespasses. Maybe you kids have remembered hearing mom and dad use that word trespass before as you pray at the dinner table. Maybe you've seen a sign out in the backyard at a park where it says, do not trespass. Or over the railroad tracks, no trespassing. Well, to trespass is to cross a boundary. boundary in this case which is the boundary of the law of God and so when Paul says we have the forgiveness of sins he's getting at the fact that we are all lawbreakers that we have all sinned against the law of God in our thoughts words and deeds by what we've done but what we've left undone and that we need a substitute to come between us and God we need a law keeper a who has done for us what we have not done, who can pay the debt of our law-breaking that we cannot pay. This means that apart from the forgiving blood of Jesus, the redemption that we have in Him, you and I deserve hell just as much as the president of Iran or the dictator of North Korea. You and I deserve hell just as much as the most awful, wicked dictator that the world has ever seen. Because we are guilty with sin. And hell itself is eternity in the presence of God without a mediator and a savior. Hell is eternity in the presence of God's wrath and anger. But because we have forgiveness of sins through his blood, heaven itself is eternity in the presence of God with a mediator. It is eternity in the presence of the Lamb of God, enjoying God, delighting in God. Heaven itself is that delight of Jesus that we in this life have a taste for, but we know the greatness of it is yet to come. We know we want it more because we know at times we love our sin too much. We know at times that our sin feels like we want to do it, and yet God says, no, put to death that sin because the sweetness of Jesus' grace is much greater. Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a sweet word. Really, as you think about it, there can hardly be a sweeter word in the ears of a guilty sinner like you and me. That all of our sin altogether has been forgiven. Every one of your past, present, and future sins have been nailed to that cross. That you are pardoned. That this moment you have joy and your soul is cleansed by His ever-forgiving blood. That is richness, and that is grace. And so we see Jesus' blood is the price of redemption. We see that, secondly, the second aspect of our sins, the result of our redemption, is forgiveness. And now, third, we see that God's grace is the ground of our redemption. Redemption, blood, forgiveness, and now the fourth word we want to look at is grace. Again, if you look at Ephesians 1, verse 7. All of this has happened according to the riches of His grace. Jesus came to shed His blood. To forgive us of our sins because God is so gracious and merciful to us. We do not deserve it. Grace itself is getting what we don't deserve. And think about this. Think about how horrendous our sins are. how twisted and dark they are, how deceitful and wicked they are. And then think of God's overwhelming, lavish grace, which is greater than all that sin. We are worse sinners than we ever thought, but His grace is greater than all of it. And so as we think about the chapter we've read, as we think about those events in the final hours of Jesus' life, As we think about the agony of the weight of the wrath of God that He bore. As we think about every one of our sins that was nailed to that cross. As we think about the fact that He was forsaken by God the Father so that we would not be forsaken. All of this should cause our hearts to say, Oh God, what manifold grace. This grace was costly to God. God the Father sent His own Son to secure this grace for you and me. God the Father sent his Holy Spirit into your hearts this day to bring you, to remind you again of the greatness of this richness and this grace that you have in Jesus. And God says today you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, if you believe. That is wonderful, matchless, manifold grace. It is sweet, loved ones. That grace is sweet and it will be sweet in your pain. It will be sweet in your doubt, in your discouragement, because in our experience, we can be tempted to think that our experiences are overwhelming to us in a way that often make God's grace seem shadowy. Or it can make God's grace seem distant. Or it can make God's grace seem not as full as it once was. And yet God says to you in His Word that His grace, that He Himself is bigger than your circumstance. He's bigger than your marital struggle or your difficulty with kids. He's bigger than your economic challenge. He's bigger than the rift that is developing between you and a friend or a family member. He's bigger than any of those circumstances because His grace is so great that He sent His only begotten Son to remove that doubt from our hearts. To remove that fear that can paralyze us. That removes that unbelief, that sin of unbelief that clings to us. And it brings us to say, I am amazed. Amazed and ultimately I am in a state of wondering, worshipping, affection. That's what words like this should do. Words like redemption and blood. Forgiveness and grace. They should cause your heart to worship. They should cause your home to be filled with words of forgiveness and gentleness. They should cause, by the power of the Holy Spirit, our love for the lost and our love for missions and our love for the glory of God to abound more. They should cause us to be humble before our husband and wife. They should cause us to get on our knees and ask for forgiveness each day to the Lord, because His grace is overflowing. It is a fountain. A fountain filled with Jesus' blood. And so, praise God this day. The Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because it is from Him that all the blessings of the Gospel flow. Amen. Let's pray. Precious Lord Jesus, Our minds can hardly and scarcely comprehend the greatness of this redemption, the greatness of the blood of Jesus that was shed, the greatness of the forgiveness that we have in him by faith, the greatness of your grace that is poured out. Lord, may our hearts soar in praise. As we consider Good Friday, may we, in praise of your holy name, also think, as we think in these next two days, of the empty tomb. For the cross leads to the resurrection. And all of it is from you, and through you, and to you. To Jesus, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit, be glory now, forever, and evermore. Amen.